Report for MedEvent (Meldesentralen) – the Reporting System for Adverse Events in Specialized Health Services
Summary of Report of the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision 1/2011
In this report, we describe reports of adverse events that patients have experienced while receiving treatment from mental health services and that have been reported to the supervision authorities during the period 2001 to 2009:
- Almost one-fifth of all reports of adverse events are from mental health services. Of 16 457 reports of adverse events in specialized health services that were reported to the supervision authorities and registered in the MedEvent database during the period 2001-2009, 2 886 reports (18 per cent) were from mental health services.
- Two-thirds of the reports from mental health services were related to damage that patients had inflicted on themselves: suicide, attempted suicide, overdoses and self-inflicted injuries. The number of reports of suicide has increased from 31 in 2001 to 118 in 2009. This indicates that reporting of suicide from mental health services has improved.
- One-third of the reports from mental health services were related to damage that was not self-inflicted. These include events of errors with medication, incidents of violence, falls, and errors related to somatic diseases.
- Almost half of the reports from mental health services (45 per cent) were reports of unnatural death. Most of these were cases of suicide or overdose.
- For slightly over half of the reports the patient was female, and for two-thirds the patient was between 16 and 44 years of age.